(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson with Mario Ritter. This week in our series, we talk about the first one hundred days of the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt's inauguration speech in March of nineteen thirty-three gave hope to millions of Americans. The new president promised to fight the Great Depression that was crushing the economy. His administration launched into action even before the inauguration ceremonies were finished. Back then, newly elected presidents were sworn into office in March instead of January. Roosevelt's aides began work even as he and his wife, Eleanor, watched the traditional Inaugural Parade. The lights of Washington's federal office buildings burned late that night.
And not just on that night, but the next night and the next night, too. The nation was in crisis. There was much work to do. The first three months of Franklin Roosevelt's administration were an exciting time. Roosevelt got Congress to pass more pieces of important legislation during this short period than most presidents pass during their entire term. These three months are remembered today as the "Hundred Days". Sunday, March fifth, was the day after the inauguration. Roosevelt asked Congress to begin a special meeting later that week. And he ordered all the nation's banks to close until the economy improved. Roosevelt also banned the export of gold. Congress met on Thursday, as Roosevelt had asked. It passed everything that the new president wanted. Both the House and Senate approved Roosevelt's strong new banking laws in less than eight hours. Roosevelt signed the bills into law the same day.
The next day, Friday, Roosevelt called on Congress to cut federal spending. Once again, Congress met and approved Roosevelt's request immediately. Two nights later, Roosevelt spoke to the nation in a radio speech. His warm, powerful voice traveled to millions of homes. He gave many listeners the hope that they could once again trust their banks and political leaders. On Monday, Roosevelt called on Congress to make it legal to sell beer and wine and to tax those sales. At that time there was a national ban on alcohol. But once again Congress agreed. Roosevelt's success in passing these laws excited the nation. People across the country watched in wonder as the new president fought and won battle after battle. Washington was filled with activity. The air was full of energy, like a country sky during an electrical storm. People from around the country rushed to the capital to urge the administration to support their ideas.
Bankers came by the thousands to win favorable legislation. Experts of all kinds offered new ideas on how to rescue the economy. Ambassadors came from Britain, France, Brazil, Chile, China and many other countries. They came to speak with Roosevelt on economic and diplomatic issues. And members of Roosevelt's Democratic Party arrived by the thousands. They came to seek jobs in the new administration. Americans watched closely what was happening in Washington. And they liked what they saw. They had voted for action. Now, Roosevelt was giving them action. One of the most important areas of action for the new administration was agriculture. American farmers had been hurt more than any other group by the economic depression. The average income of American farmers had dropped in three years from one hundred sixty-two dollars a year to just forty-eight dollars. Farm prices had fallen fifty-five percent. The buying power of the average farmer had dropped by more than half.
Many farmers could not even earn enough money to pay for their tools and seed. The main cause of the problems for farmers was that they were producing too much. There was too much grain, too much meat, too much cotton. As a result, prices stayed low. The situation was good for people in cities who bought farm products. But it was a disaster for the farmers who produced those products. Franklin Roosevelt attacked the problem by limiting production. His administration put a new tax on grain products. The tax increased their price and reducing demand. The administration paid cotton farmers to destroy some of their crops. And it bought and killed five million pigs to reduce the amount of meat on the market. It was a strange situation. Some Americans had trouble understanding the economic reason why food had to be destroyed so people could have enough to eat. But more officials agreed that this was the only way to limit supply, raise prices and save farmers.
The plan worked. Production quickly fell. Hot weather and bad harvests in nineteen thirty-three and nineteen thirty-four reduced the amount of grain even more. As a result, prices rose. Farm income increased fifty percent in four years. The administration also attacked the problem of falling industrial production. At the time of Roosevelt's inauguration, the production of American goods had fallen by more than half in just four years. Business owners reacted by cutting their costs. They lowered wages and reduced their number of workers. But these actions only reduced the number of people with enough money to buy goods. And so production went down further and further. Roosevelt created a National Recovery Administration that sought to gain the cooperation of businesses. Many business owners agreed to follow codes or rules such as limiting the number of hours people could work. They also agreed to raise wages and to stop hiring child labor. And they agreed to improve working conditions and to cooperate with labor unions.
At the same time, Roosevelt created a Public Works Administration to provide jobs to unemployed workers. The federal government put people to work on building dams, bridges, water systems and other major projects. On monetary policy, Roosevelt and the Congress decided that the dollar should no longer be tied to the price of gold. Other action in Washington included a bill for homeowners that helped many Americans borrow money to save their homes. And a bank insurance bill guaranteed that Americans would not lose their savings. This insurance greatly increased public faith in the banks. Roosevelt and Congress created a Civilian Conservation Corps to put young men to work in rural areas to protect the nation's natural resources. These young men did things like plant trees and improve parks. They also worked with farmers to develop farming methods that help protect the soil against wind and rain.
One of Roosevelt's most creative projects was a plan to improve the area around the southern state of Tennessee. The Tennessee River Valley was a very poor area. Few farms had electricity. Forests were thin. Floods were common. Roosevelt and Congress decided to attack all of these problems with a single project. The new Tennessee Valley Authority built dams, cleared rivers, expanded forests and provided electricity. It succeeded in helping farmers throughout the area, creating new life and hope. The "Hundred Days" -- the first three months of the Roosevelt administration -- were a great success. One reporter for the New York Times observed that the change from President Herbert Hoover to Franklin Roosevelt was like a man moving from a slow horse to an airplane. Suddenly, the nation was moving again. There was action everywhere. Journalist Frederick Allen described the situation this way. The difference between Roosevelt's program and the Hoover program was sharp. Roosevelt's program was not a program of defense, but of attack. There was a new willingness to expand the limits of government. In most of the laws, there was a new push for the good of the "common man." There was a new effort to build wealth from the bottom up, rather than from the top down.
重点解析
1.promise to 许诺做；承诺
Claire had made me promise to tell her the truth.
克莱尔要我保证把真相告诉她。
2.less than 小于；低于
The marriage had lasted for less than two years .
这段婚姻维持了不到两年。
3.as a result 因此；结果是
As a result, the bad thing has been turned into a good one.
结果坏事变成了好事。
4.at the same time 同时；另一方面
It's impossible to get everybody together at the same time.
让所有人同时聚在一起是不可能的。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。我是马道格·约翰逊，和我一道主持节目的是马里奥·里特。在本周的系列节目中，我们将讨论富兰克林·罗斯福总统执政最初一百天时间内发生的故事。1933年3月罗斯福的就职演说为数百万美国人带来希望，新总统承诺要与重创经济的大萧条抗争。他的政府甚至在就职典礼结束前就开始行动了。当时，新当选的总统是在三月份而不是一月份宣誓就职。罗斯福的助手们甚至在他和妻子埃莉诺观看传统的就职游行时就开始工作，华盛顿联邦办公大楼的灯在那天晚上很晚时还亮着。
不仅在那天晚上，而是在之后的晚间都亮着。美国陷入了危机，有很多工作要做。富兰克林·罗斯福执政的最初三个月令人兴奋，罗斯福让国会在短期内通过的重要立法比大多数总统在整个任期内通过的都要多。这三个月今天被记为“百日”。3月5日星期日是就职典礼的第二天，罗斯福要求国会在那周晚些时候召开一次特别会议。他命令全国所有银行停止营业，直到经济好转。罗斯福还禁止黄金出口。正如罗斯福要求的那样，国会在星期四召开会议。会议通过了这位新总统想要的一切，参众两院都在不到八小时内批准了罗斯福强有力的新银行法。罗斯福在同一天签署该法案，使其成为法律。
第二天是周五，罗斯福呼吁国会削减联邦开支。国会再次召开会议，立即批准了罗斯福的请求。两晚之后，罗斯福在一次广播讲话中向全国发表讲话。他温暖有力的声音传遍了千家万户。他给了许多听众希望，告诉他们可以再次信任他们的银行和政治领导人。周一时，罗斯福呼吁国会使出售啤酒和葡萄酒合法化，并对这些销售征收税款。当时全国禁止饮酒，但国会再次表示同意。罗斯福成功通过这些法律，使全国人民兴奋不已。全国人民惊奇地注视着这位新总统，一战又一战地获胜。华盛顿举行各种活动，空气中充满了能量，就像乡村天空中的一场暴风雨。来自全国各地的人们奔赴首都，敦促政府支持他们的想法。
千千万万的银行家们都前来争取有利的立法，各路专家就如何拯救经济提出了新思路。英国、法国、巴西、智利、中国和许多其他国家的大使都来到美国，他们与罗斯福就经济和外交问题进行会谈。罗斯福领导的民主党中，成千上万名成员来到这里，他们是来新政府找工作的。美国人密切关注华盛顿发生的事情，他们喜欢他们所看到的情形。他们投票赞成采取行动，罗斯福现在采取行动了。新政府最重要的行动领域之一是农业，经济萧条对美国农民的伤害比其他任何群体都大。美国农民的平均收入在三年内从每年162美元下降到只有84美元，农产品价格下降了55%，普通农民的购买力下降了一半以上。
许多农民甚至挣不到足够的钱来购买工具和种子。农民所遇到问题的主要原因是他们生产得太多，拥有太多的谷物、肉类和棉花。因此，价格保持在低位。这种情况对于城市里购买农产品的人是有利的，但对于生产这些产品的农民来说，却这是一场灾难。富兰克林·罗斯福通过限制生产来解决这个问题，他的政府对粮食产品征收新税。税收提高价格，却减少了需求。政府花钱请生产棉花的农民毁掉一些棉花，为了减少市场上的肉类产量，还购买并杀死了500万头猪。这是一种奇怪的情况，一些美国人很难理解为什么必须把食物破坏掉，才能让人们有足够的食物。但是，更多的官员同意，这是限制供应、提高价格和拯救农民的唯一途径。
这个计划奏效了，产量迅速下降。1933年和1934年的炎热天气和糟糕的收成，使粮食产量进一步减少。结果，物价上涨了。农场收入在四年时间里增加了50%。政府还抨击了工业生产下降的问题。罗斯福就职时，美国商品的产量在短短四年内下降了一半以上。企业主的反应是削减成本，他们降低工资，减少工人人数。但是，这些行动只会使拥有足够资金购买商品的人数减少。所以，产量越来越低。罗斯福建立了一个使美国复苏的政府，寻求企业之间的合作。许多企业主同意遵守诸如限制员工工作时间等守则或规则，他们还同意提高工资，停止雇佣童工。他们同意改善工作条件，并与工会合作。
与此同时，罗斯福建立了一个公共工程管理机构，为失业工人提供就业机会。联邦政府让人们从事水坝、桥梁、供水系统和其他重大项目的建设。在货币政策方面，罗斯福和国会决定，美元不应再与黄金价格挂钩。华盛顿的其他行动还包括一项针对房主的法案，该法案帮助许多美国人借钱来挽救他们的家园。银行保险法案保证美国人不会失去他们的储蓄，这种保险极大地增加了公众对银行的信心。罗斯福和国会成立了一个平民保护团，让年轻人到农村地区工作，以保护国家的自然资源。这些年轻人从事植树和改善公园等工作，他们还与农民合作，开发有助于保护土壤免受风雨侵袭的耕作方法。
罗斯福最富创意的一个项目，是改善田纳西州南部地区的计划。田纳西河谷是一个非常贫穷的地区，这里几乎没有农场可以供电，森林很稀薄，经常发洪水。罗斯福和国会决定实施一个项目来解决所有问题。新的田纳西河谷管理局建造水坝，清理河流，扩大森林面积，并提供电力。它成功地帮助了整个地区的农民，创造了新的生活和希望。罗斯福政府执政的头三个月的“百日”取得了巨大成功。《纽约时报》的一位记者注意到，从赫伯特·胡佛总统到富兰克林·罗斯福总统的转变，就像一个人从骑着一匹行动迟缓的马，改为乘坐一架飞机那样。突然，美国又运转起来了，到处都在行动。记者弗雷德里克·艾伦这样描述当时的情况，罗斯福的计划和胡佛相比，有很大的不同。罗斯福的计划不是防御性计划，而是进攻性计划。存在一种新的要扩大政府限制的意愿。在大多数法律中，出现了为“普通人”争取利益而存在的新推动力，有了自下而上而不是自上而下建立财富的新努力。
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